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Plastics Barely Get a Mention at Confirmation Hearing of Trump’s Pick to Lead EPAPlastics Barely Get a Mention at Confirmation Hearing of Trump’s Pick to Lead EPA

Only one senator asked nominee Lee Zeldin any questions at all about plastics, and they involved the usual nonsense.

John Spevacek

January 25, 2025

3 Min Read
Lee Zelda
Lee Zeldin, President Trump's nominee to lead the EPA, is seen here at his Senate confirmation hearing, perhaps pondering the meaning of "don't worry, be happy" in the context of chemical recycling.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images News

President Trump nominated Lee M. Zeldin to be the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Zeldin’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Publics Works was last week, and it is hard to describe the event. It’s not like the committee lobbed him softballs — it was more like they didn’t ask him any questions at all.

Democratic Senator Merkley of Oregon was the only one to ask anything about plastics, but he took his sweet time in getting to them. Keep in mind that the senators only have five minutes each for questions, so when Merkley started by talking about a road trip he took with his daughter, he wasn’t using his time effectively. 

Merkley first asked Zeldin a couple of simple questions about the completeness of his financial disclosures. The senator then rambled on about climate change without asking any questions.

Finally, an actual question

He finally got to the good stuff — a question (actually two questions) about plastics! Before that, however, there was a (further) preamble where the senator mentioned all sorts of research articles on microplastics and their connection to cancers, heart disease, their accumulation in the brain, their appearance in breast milk and every organ of the body, and endocrine disruption.

Related:Shell Walks Back Chemical Recycling Project

(I’ve been in the “hot seat” on a few occasions when I’ve been deposed or cross-examined as an expert witness for legal matters. Anytime the lawyer starts going off topic with some longwinded introduction to a question instead of directly asking me a question is when I start to relax a little bit, sensing that maybe this won’t be such an intense experience. I’ve gotta believe that Zeldin was feeling the same way.)

Finally, finally, he got to the first of two questions about plastics: “Have you [Zeldin] steeped yourself in the science and problems associated with plastics in the human body?” Zeldin answered that he hadn’t read the articles yet but soon would.

The senator then shifted gears to plastic waste and said, “There is an effort by the chemical industry to say, ‘Don’t worry, we will just melt everything down in big pots to keep plastics out of the waste treatments.’ They call it chemical recycling. It is basically thermal melting. . . . Are you familiar with the very limited role that the chemical industry is trying to say ‘don’t worry, be happy’ on plastics? [sic]”

Repeat after me: Chemical recycling is not thermal melting

Chemical recycling is basically thermal melting? Where did that idea come from? While I’m no fan of “chemical recycling,” it is quite different than melting. The process heats plastic in an oxygen-free environment so that it breaks down into small molecules that can then be processed and refined similarly to crude oil. Yes, the plastic is heated high enough to melt, but that’s not the primary characteristic of the process. The senator thought he understood the process and wanted to school Zeldin on it but he was in no position to do so. 

Zeldin stated that he needed to spend more time researching the issue.

The senator’s time had expired by then, so he closed with this: “. . . in plastics, there is a big story trying to be sold about ‘don’t worry.’ It will be your responsibility to make sure you speak the truth to the American people.”

Good, because the senator is not capable of “speaking truth.” I’m not sure where he gets this whole “don’t worry, be happy” line from. I’ve not seen it anywhere. Have you?

By the way, the committee approved Zeldin’s nomination on a strictly party-line vote. It now goes to the full Senate.

About the Author

John Spevacek

Born and raised in Minnesota, John Spevacek earned a B.ChE. from the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana). He worked in the plastics industry for 25 years for several companies, large and small, in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

He began teaching so that he could share his experiences and knowledge with others. He and his wife became fed up with Minnesota winters and moved south shortly after this career change. Spevacek currently is an assistant professor of engineering at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, NC.

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